210 WILD BEASTS OF THE WORLD 



down the giant thistles of the pampas in order to feed on the seeds ; the 

 dead stalks, and any bones or other rubbish they may come across, are 

 dragged on to the mound, and help to elevate it. They are not very 

 prolific animals, only breeding once a year, and then bringing forth only 

 two or three young ones. Yet they manage to hold their own in spite 

 of several dangerous enemies, especially the Puma, which hunts them 

 untiringly, and appears to be their worst foe. Another is the common 

 Pampas Fox (Cants azarce), a grey animal, rather a small Wolf than a 

 Fox, which, having by force possessed himself of one of the burrows in the 

 village, is all too apt to depopulate it by devouring the young Vizcachas 

 sooner or later, though the old ones appear to be a match for him, and 

 even regard his presence in their midst with indifference, until he embarks 

 upon his evil courses. 



Like so many of their order, too, they come into conflict with 

 man by their destructiveness to vegetation, to say nothing of the 

 danger to riders caused by their burrows, and are hence hunted to 

 extermination by their human neighbours. The most effectual method 

 of getting rid of them appears to be the shockingly cruel one of 

 earthing up their burrows and leaving them to die of hunger. Men 

 make a special business of this, for the doomed colony must be 

 watched for days lest its inhabitants should dig themselves out, or be 

 rescued by their neighbours. For, to their credit be it said, animals 

 from neighbouring Vizcacheras will come at night and try to release 

 their friends ; indeed, in time of peace, if I may use the expression, 

 there is a good deal of friendly intercourse between neighbouring 

 colonies, visits being paid and returned. The Vizcacha, however, con- 

 siders his house to be his castle, and will not carry hospitality so far 

 as to ask a friend inside; indeed, it takes very severe pressure of 

 peril to induce a hunted Vizcacha to trust himself inside a neigh- 

 bour's front door. 



The Vizcachas have other friends, or at least harmless associates, 

 besides each other. The best known of these is the little long-legged 

 Burrowing Owl (Speotyto cunicularia), shown in the picture, which 

 shares the burrows of the Vizcacha in South America, as it does those 



